A Twist of Fate
by solikekate
Summary: When a twist of fate comes along, who dares stand in the way. (Set after season 7, does not follow any of the season 8/9 comics)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

I woke up and everything around me was dark. I had no damn idea where I was and all I knew is that I hurt, everywhere hurt. A thought tugged at the back of my mind, I was forgetting something important, so important. I tried to move but I felt suffocated, nothing worked. My muscles felt heavy. Where was I? What was I doing before waking up here? I couldn't help but focus on the niggling feeling that I needed to remember what was happening, I knew it was life and death… Or at least that's what my gut was telling me.

_**24 hours earlier:-**_

Buffy's POV

I'd just gotten out of the shower and as per usual, my doorbell rang. It could only be one person at this time of morning so I ran down the stairs wrapped in my fluffy pink towel. Willow was always popping round first thing in the morning and when she did, she usually she brought coffee and donuts. Mmmm, coffee. I was caught up in my thoughts about said coffee when I opened the door. I must have zoned out because the next thing I hear is a cough… And it doesn't sound like Willow. I look up to see a grinning Faith.

"Hey B, goin' for a new look?" Her eyes lit up mischievously and I had to wonder if I was blushing right about now. It felt like I was. Why was I even worrying about this? "Hey, Earth to Buffy… You gonna invite me in or are you gonna let us both freeze to death?" Damn, I'd zoned out. I don't know what it was about Faith seeing me in my towel, but I felt like a cat caught in headlights. She seemed to be finding it amusing though, her eyes always gave her away. "Yeah, sure… Come in. There's juice in the fridge." I told her and excused myself to go get dressed.

I came down twenty-six minutes and four outfits later. I wore a pair of tight blue jeans and a sheer white blouse with a vest underneath. I'd left a few buttons open to expose the silver cross that hung at my chest. A pair of brown leather boots completed my outfit. I felt happy with my choice.

I walked into my lounge to find Faith sprawled across the sofa, booted feet on my coffee table. She'd certainly made herself at home, the aforementioned juice on the table and my last bag of potato chips being demolished right before my eyes. It was my turn to cough now…

"I thought you wouldn't mind B" she said looking between me and the chips… "It's only, I never get to have any at home. The girls have usually raided the cupboards by the time I get home." I felt kinda sorry for Faith, she'd opened up her home to some of the Slayers we'd recruited here to Cleveland, no one asked her to. She just felt like she owed it to everyone to set a good example, according to her after a few drinks, it was a long path to redemption… and this was the least she could do.

"Don't worry about it, I have to go grocery shopping this morning anyway." She shot me another of her grins and emptied the last few crumbs from the bag into her mouth. "About that grocery shopping… You need to take a rain check. Giles sent me. He thinks there's some new big bad in town." Faith had her grim face on now, she looked at the clock on the wall to her left. "We have ten minutes to get to the compound to meet the others… I'll drive."


	2. Chapter 2

_[Hey guys, I'm really enjoying writing my first fanfic! I'd like to thank you for all your views, I'm hoping to be able to update this regularly and I'm hoping you're enjoying it. Any comments/reviews would be greatly appreciated as I'm new to this!]_

Chapter Two

_Faith's POV_

I killed the engine after pulling up outside the compound. I say compound, because it's a stinkin' huge concrete monstrosity. It's what we call home here in Ohio, a Slayer HQ you could say. It's got the works… A state of the art gym, training rooms, weapons I never even knew existed but I've always loved, a massive library which is pretty much Giles' happy place, the biggest and best stocked kitchen I've ever stepped foot in, small and large common rooms and a residential wing for the slayers who are still in training.

Right now, we were headed to the library where Giles would no doubt be up to his eyebrows in volumes of dusty old books. I could feel B's eyes on me from behind as she followed me down the corridor, it wasn't a surprise when she asked for what had to be the fiftieth time… "Faith, surely Giles mentioned something else?!" She'd been grilling me for info on the new big bad the whole drive here, not believing I'd already told her everything I knew, can't blame her… It's not like I was big on the truth back in the day. "I think his exact words were along the lines of… 'Oh dear, this is not good at all...' then he took his glasses off and cleaned them." She looked at me then, her expression bleak. "When Giles' does that, it is not of the good"

I opened the library door to an all too familiar scene. They were researching in every way imaginable. Giles was deep in to a book with about ten more piles knee deep stacked around his desk. Xander and Kennedy were at one of the small tables with a couple of volumes each. Red was surfing the net, fingers running over the keyboard like her life depended on it and Evan, one of my roommates was at a table surrounded by newspapers… She musta drawn the short straw, again. Poor newbie.

"Ahhh, Buffy, you're here." Giles stood, and walked across the room to the large table in the centre of the room. The others followed suit. "Yeah, Faith won't tell me what's going on… What's going on?" Buffy glared at me and it hurt me a little, not that it should really matter to me but it somehow I felt that it did.

"Well, Evan came to me after noticing that there have been a lot of rather strange deaths in this area over the last few months and well, quite frankly I'm not sure what could be going on." Evan ran a hand through her short black hair messing it up. As she spoke, she lifted up her current paper, highlighted article at the forefront. "These deaths, they're so strange… So gruesome, yet they all seem to have some sort of strange accident behind them… Here, Mr Jeffery Watson tripped over on some marbles his son had left on the kitchen floor and fell heart first onto an upturned knife on their cutlery drainer." I watched Buffy, her brow furrowed in concentration as she told Evan to continue. "Well, here's Miss Helena York, aged 17 who was walking down the street when a piano falls from god knows where, and crushes her to death" Everyone was contemplating this, all gathered around our table. Willow and Kennedy were hand in hand, the perfect couple they were most of the time. Willow looked at Giles then at B and me and interjected, "Yeah, I found that one interesting too… But I can't seem to find where that piano came from. I've searched the Police report and they have no clue either. No one in the building on that street had a piano nor was having one delivered. It just fell from, well nowhere." I could tell that she was pretty frustrated with hitting a dead end. Kennedy squeezed Red's hand then, it must be nice to have someone there for her.

"We've come up with zilch from the book learning, now I know why I didn't go to college" Xander, always with the comic relief. Some days I'm sure he was all that kept us all here, working together. Buffy crossed her arms. I wondered if that was a new cross she had on, I've never noticed it before and all I notice now is the way it sits on her chest just above her breasts. Okay, maybe I need a good night out and a cold shower… It was when I was thinking this that Buffy tapped me on the arm, "Hey, Earth to Faith."  
"Hey, quit stealing my sweet lines!" I said, grinning at the fact she'd remembered my first words to her today. "Stop day dreaming then, we're free for the rest of the day. Giles wants us to patrol tonight." I noticed then that everyone else had gone back to their individual ports of research. Odd, it only seemed like a second had passed. "I suppose you want a lift home then B? Man, you're such a drain on my gas tank." She smiled at this, thinking of her driving history. "You wouldn't have it any other way, or you'd have to slay me… I'd kill more people in half an hour driving a car than a vampire would in a month!" I laughed, and I mean laughed. My sides hurt. B has a good sense of humour when she lets her guard down, it's rare she does that with me… But well, lately she has. I think we've made progress these last few years since Sunnydale. We continued to make fun of her driving skills or lack thereof all the way back to the car and during the journey. I dropped her off by the grocery store and drove home to catch some Z's before patrol.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

_Faith's POV_  
Shower, check. Underwear, check. Clothes, check. I couldn't think straight. What had I done? I'd had an epiphany. That's what I'd done. I'd dropped Buffy off at the grocery store. Then I went and taught my class at the compound. Afterwards Evan caught a ride home with me, she told me Quinn and Lexi we're staying to hit the gym together. We got home to the house the four of us currently shared. Evan said she was going for a shower. I sat on the sofa. I played computer games and relaxed for a while.

I heard the shower shut off and I got up to get a drink. I walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, there was a small bottle of orange juice. Cool. I shut the fridge door and dropped the juice. Evan was standing there in her towel and it knocked me off guard. "Faith…" She looked at me then, really looked at me. She liked me!

"Butterfingers… Better pick it up before someone steals it." None of the tension dissipated, I just stood there. I'd never really thought of Evan like that, in fact… I hadn't thought of anyone like that in a long time I realised. When did that happen? When we first got here I'd gone out and hooked up a few times a week. Somewhere during my internal monologue Evan had gotten so close to me that I couldn't breathe without touching her, she tilted her head and time slowed, I could see her moving her face closer to mine. When I didn't pull away, she kissed me. Slowly at first, until she was sure I was returning the kiss. Self-control I've learnt, is not a friend of mine… Unless I can use the excuse it's been a while.

I was half asleep, and completely content. I rolled onto my side, eyes closed and wrapped my arm around her. "Buffy, that was amazing" I whispered. That's when all hell broke loose.

"Buffy?!" Evan rolled over as I opened my eyes and that's when the pieces all fell together. Evan and I had got physical and I'd all but passed out on her bed afterwards. "You wake up and call me Buffy?! Get out of here. Now."

"Evan… I… I…" I stuttered, what could I say? I thought about it, I'd never thought of Evan that way… But Buffy? Yeah, sure. A couple hundred times maybe. I'd never really thought about it. I'd look at her after patrol and wish she'd turn round and kiss me… But I'd always attributed that down to post-slaying hunger and horniness. There was nothing I could say so I walked towards the door, I turned at the last moment. "I'm sorry." I offered as I walked out of the door and into my own room.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

_Buffy's POV_

The sky was an inky midnight blue and I was sat on top of a tombstone and I was cold. Faith was late as per usual, 45 minutes and counting, if she was much longer I was packing up and going home. Kennedy had been and gone, in search of Evan for their patrol and I wondered if Faith had just forgotten our plans to patrol together or if she'd just blown it off. I never knew where I stood with her. It bothered me more than it should, maybe because I was really enjoying spending time around her lately. These days were a far cry from how things used to be between us. As I jumped off the tombstone and absently wandered around the cemetery I thought about Faith, an odd feeling in the bottom of my stomach. I think some people call them vibes. I have no idea what it was trying to tell me.

Another 45 minutes had passed. No Faith. No vampires. No demons. Tonight was seriously of the dull. I tucked my stake into the inside pocket of my jacket, defeated, though not in the literal sense and turned around… And there she was, just standing there behind me. "What time do you call this then?" I asked her with frost in my voice and a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry B, I got caught up." She replied looking sheepish. If I hadn't have known better I would say she looked guilty, but guilty of what I had no idea. "Are you okay Faith?" I asked. I was concerned. This was about as far as you could get from Faith's playful demeanour. "Yeah, B. Don't worry about it. I'm good. I'm here now… So let's get this over with."


End file.
